


The Equation of a Lie

by devilxinxdetails



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Amami is too nice, Angst, Anxiety, Fluff, I'm gonna add more tags and characters as the story progresses, M/M, Ouma isn't actually a little shit, Self-Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, these boys really deserve better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-18 14:06:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13683210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilxinxdetails/pseuds/devilxinxdetails
Summary: Ouma loves pretending to be someone else and Amami seems to be the only person interested in finding out about his true self. But discovering the truth behind the lies is not as easy as it seems.





	1. Why me?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! So I've only written a few one-shots and this is actually my first slow burn fanfic. I'm a bit nervous about posting this, since I'm not sure about how it's gonna end up, but I'm also excited about writing it. Oumami is one of my favorite ships and I feel like it doesn't get as much attention as it should. 
> 
> Also, I'm really sorry if this seems poorly written or rushed since I'm not that good at writing fanfics yet, but I'm really trying and I hope I'll get better. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

Amami and Ouma being together during math class was something new. The two did share a lot of classes, but math was definitely not one of them…until now. 

Ouma had no idea whether this was a good or a horrible thing. Despite being quite intelligent and sharp, he was totally dense when it came to math. He just couldn’t understand anything written on the blackboard. 

The problem was that he didn’t want Amami to know something like that about him. He wanted to be remembered as the genius he seemed to be. But unfortunately, this couldn’t be possible anymore.

Still, having Amami here might not be as bad as he had thought. He made Ouma feel…safer? No, that can’t be the right term. There was something about him that intrigued the other boy.

Ouma entered the classroom quietly, a sense of dread settling in his stomach. He was not unfamiliar with the feeling. After all, he hated being embarrassed just because he couldn’t solve some equations and calculate the area of a hexagon. He had to keep his image clean, so he couldn’t afford making a fool out of himself.

Before finding a good seat, Ouma’s gaze was met by a familiar pair of green eyes. There was no mistake that those eyes were _his_.

Amami Rantaro. That one person that seemed to coincidentally follow Ouma everywhere, but who still kept his mysterious, yet charming personality.

The other’s eyes stared back directly into his. After that, he was met by another one of Amami’s warm smiles.

“Hey, Ouma-kun” he said softly, waving his hand in the other’s direction. 

Kokichi wasn’t surprised by the green-haired boy’s sudden greeting. After all, they were together almost all the time. Still they never discussed that much, just making some small talk from time to time. Ouma never truly understood the reason for this, but he was always under the impression that this happened because he always felt somehow intimidated by Amami. There was something about him that Ouma just couldn’t figure out. He always seemed so relaxed and nice to everyone. That’s probably why he never understood how such a person was actually real.

Ouma looked at Amami and waved back at him, flashing another one of his fake smiles.

“Well hello, Amami-chan! It seems we meet again” he replied in his usual enthusiastic voice, though what he was feeling at the moment was completely the opposite. Amami chuckled lightly.

“Yeah, it seems so.” he responded, scratching the back of his head. “Wanna sit here?”

As the green-haired boy gestured at the chair right next to him, Ouma felt a weird sensation. Was it okay to sit so close to Amami? What if he was going to do or say something dumb? Was Amami going to think that he’s actually stupid?

No, he shouldn’t be worrying about something like this. Everything’s gonna be okay.

“Aww, Amami-chan is offering me a place next to him! That’s so sweet” the purple-haired boy spoke with a cheerful tone before taking the offered seat.

The two of them prepared their stuff for the beginning of the class in silence. Ouma felt nervous again, but tried to calm down.

As soon as that happened, the teacher entered the classroom. 

***

The first 30 minutes weren’t as bad as Kokichi had expected. The teacher started teaching them a new lesson, that he didn’t understand, of course, but it was alright as long as he didn’t have to solve anything.

Still, after she had finished teaching, the teacher wrote some exercises on the blackboard that the others were supposed to solve by themselves. 

Ouma seemed very calm and confident while he was just freaking out on the inside. He had no idea about any of the answers. Meanwhile, Rantaro finished all of them quite quickly. 

How the hell was he so good at everything?

“Ouma-kun, can you tell me the answer for exercise 3?” the teacher asked coldly, making Kokichi snap right out of his trance-like state.

The question sent shivers down his spine. What was he gonna do? He couldn’t just give a random answer. Why did she have to choose him out of everybody?

“Yes, um… Well, uh, it’s” he stuttered and looked down at his notebook, trying to seem like he solved the exercise. 

Stuttering wasn’t something usual for him. In fact, it was probably something that he really hated doing, but he couldn’t help it in this situation.

He knew that Rantaro was right there, next to him, and probably staring at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world, which made him feel even worse.

As soon as he opened his mouth to say something completely random, he was totally surprised to see that Amami moved his notebook towards Ouma’s slowly, so that nobody could see it, and pointed his finger at the answer written there. 

Ouma didn’t hesitate and just read the answer. Sure, it could’ve been wrong or Amami might’ve just written something stupid to mess with him, but it was better than nothing.

“It’s 15.6, of course” he responded smirking, trying to act like his usual self.

The teacher looked at him with disbelief and nodded slowly.

“That’s…correct” she said, impressed that Ouma actually figured it out on his own.

Kokichi smiled proudly. For the first time he actually said something right at math. And everyone thought he was the one who did the whole thing.

Well, everyone except one person. Ouma thought about it and realized that his whole plan failed, since the one person he wanted to impress was the one who knew he had no clue about solving the exercise.

He was suddenly overwhelmed by embarrassment again. He was trying to avoid Rantaro’s gaze as hard as he could. He didn’t want to show any weakness to the only person he was so interested in. Yet Amami decided to help him. Why would he do that?

When the bell rang, Ouma felt somehow even more nervous than during class, but he didn’t want to show it. He just wanted to go outside for a few minutes and relax, so that he would be able to go back to playing his role perfectly.

Before being able to stand up though, he felt a soft tap on his shoulder, and it came from a certain direction.

Ouma turned slowly towards Amami, expecting to see him laughing or just teasing him for his stupidity. Instead he was met by another one of the boy’s gentle smiles.

“Hey, I’ve noticed you had some problems with today’s lesson, so I wondered if you might want me to explain it to you again.” he said quietly, trying not to be heard by anyone else and probably also not to sound mean to Ouma.

The purple-haired boy did not see that coming. But still, considering Amami’s kind nature and tendency to help others, it shouldn’t have been that surprising.

“Oh, is Amami-chan really willing to help a person as great as myself? Do you really think I need any help?” Ouma asked in his carefree voice. If only Rantaro knew how Kokichi truly felt.

Amami looked thoughtful for a second before responding.

“I think everyone needs a little help sometimes” he stated casually, shrugging.

The response seemed so simple, yet it was probably going to stick with Ouma for a while from now on.

Without being able to give any of his usual sassy remarks, he just agreed to Amami’s offer.

“Great. Then let’s go after school to your house” he said, standing up, not giving Ouma any time to protest it. “Meet me at the school’s gate at 2.”

After saying this to Kokichi, he waved at him and exited the classroom.

The other boy didn’t even have time to give a proper reaction. He was still in his seat, feeling unable to move. What was this weird feeling?

This was the first time the great, prideful Ouma ever received help from someone.

***

It was almost 2 P.M. when Ouma already arrived at the school gate. Since he was early, he could gather all his thoughts and analyze the situation he was in. 

He failed miserably trying to impress Amami, but instead of a teasing remark, he got some help from him. Was this safe though? Rantaro didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, but Kokichi was extremely paranoid when it came to trusting other people. 

Although he might have looked overly confident all the time, he was actually actually afraid of betrayal. 

Although he was very smart and cunning, he never considered himself to be very understanding when it cam to other people, still considering some of them a mystery.

And also, although he always seemed arrogant and mean towards the others, he genuinely cared about them deep inside. 

That’s why Ouma Kokichi’s existence was entirely a lie. That’s probably why he loved lies so much. And that’s why no one understood him or at least tried to do that. And although that really hurt him, he thought that not getting close to others was for the best. Nothing good would come out of being friends with him.

So then why did Amami volunteer to help him? Was it because he pitied him? No, that can’t be possible, because Kokichi always wore his mask when he was with him, so he couldn’t understand him enough to pity him. Then what was it? 

Ouma just couldn’t understand it and it just made him more and more frustrated.

“I’m glad you really came, Ouma-kun.”

Since Kokichi was so caught up in his own thoughts, he barely heard the voice directed at him, but he instantly recognized it. That calm, beautiful, soothing voice could only belong to him.

“Amami-chan!” he shouted, striking a dramatic pose, “I thought you were just going to leave me hanging. That would’ve earned you a super duper painful punishment.”

Rantaro was, of course, not taking him seriously. Still, he let out a fake gasp, trying to imitate fear.

“Hmm… What kind of punishment?” he asked out of curiosity.

Ouma felt surprised of the fact that Amami was actually playing along with his act. Most people used to just ignore him because they were too exhausted to keep up with him, but Rantaro seemed like it didn’t bother him. In fact, he might have been enjoying it a bit.

“Nishishi, I’m not telling you. I’m gonna keep it to myself ‘till later, just in case” Ouma responded, laughing in his usual evil way.

Amami looked at him and chuckled before replying.

“Well, then I guess I’d better behave, huh.” he stated casually, putting a hand on the back of his head and smiling. 

Ouma tried to observe him as hard as he could. Why was he so carefree and nice all the time?

“Oh, oh, I forgot to ask!” Kokichi said loudly, trying to gain attention “Why does Amami-chan want us to go to my house and not his?”

This question was on Ouma’s mind since Amami suggested it. It’s not like he really minded inviting Rantaro to his house, but there seemed to be a reason why the green-haired boy didn’t seem very comfortable about his own place.

Although Kokichi thought the question was going to bring some kind of super dramatic response, Amami looked as calm and composed as usual.

“Oh, my house is pretty crowded and noisy all the time, so you might not be able to concentrate that well there” he answered shrugging.

Kokichi knew that wasn’t a lie. The response seemed surprisingly honest. Did Rantaro actually trust him enough to tell him the truth?

Amami was definitely not boring and he never failed to impress Ouma.


	2. The reality and the game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! Alright, so this update was pretty quick. I'm not very proud of this chapter since there's not a lot of action in it, but I enjoyed writing it quite a bit. I'll try to make the chapters longer once I have more free time. Also, thanks for your support, it really means a lot to me!

The walk to Ouma’s home was pretty quiet. The good thing was that it was also quite short, so the atmosphere wasn’t awkward.

When the two of them arrived at their destination, Amami was definitely surprised.

“So this is your house?” he asked, trying not to sound rude.

Ouma noticed that the other boy was totally unimpressed about the aspect of the place where he lived. It’s true that his house was different than what people would expect. His behavior always made him look like a rich, spoiled brat, but that wasn’t even close to the truth.

The truth was that Kokichi’s home wasn’t even a house. It was actually just a small apartment on the second floor of an ordinary looking block. 

“Does Amami-chan have any problems with my home?” Ouma asked innocently, placing a finger on his chin.

Rantaro looked at him and shook his head.

“No, it’s just that, well, I was expecting it to be, let’s say, more extravagant” he said, shrugging. 

Ouma just giggled and opened the door.

As the two of them entered the apartment, Amami could finally see the place on the inside. It was even smaller than it looked, but it was filled with a lot of stuff.

The place had only one room, a small kitchen and a bathroom. 

Rantaro presumed that the room was both a living room and a bedroom. There was a couch with a blanket on it, a table, a wardrobe and a TV. That meant that Kokichi slept on the couch.

The room looked completely normal, except for the fact that it was really messy. There were lots of books, magazines and newspapers scattered everywhere. On the table, there was a game of chess, looking like it was interrupted before it could be finished. 

Rantaro could also see a set of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which was no surprise, considering how much Kokichi loved the show. The surprising thing, on the other hand, was the teddy-bear on the couch. Why did he still have something like that?

“Huh? Is Amami-chan surprised to see such a mess here?” Ouma asked, putting both of his hands behind his head and grinning. “Well, I had no idea someone was going to come to my ‘castle’, so I didn’t really bother cleaning.”

His voice was as carefree and relaxed as always, but Rantaro suspected that’s not how the other boy was truly feeling. He could sense some embarrassment in his tone, which made him feel somehow bad, since it was his fault for just showing up at his place.

“Don’t worry about it, Ouma-kun” Amami spoke in cheerful voice, trying to light up the situation. 

Kokichi, instead of saying something, just looked at Rantaro, took his hand and dragged him in the kitchen. 

Amami felt a bit surprised by the boy’s sudden action, but he wasn’t shocked by it. Ouma was totally the type of person who would do something like this and Amami was used to being dragged to different places. But his hand felt so…cold.

Still, there was one question on Rantaro’s mind. Why was Kokichi living alone? He had no idea about it. But it had to be true. There was no other explanation for the small place and the whole mess in there. He decided to ask Ouma about that after the math lesson.

Kokichi took him to the kitchen, near the table, and told him to sit down.

***

“And that’s how you solve that kind of equation” Amami said, finishing his long explanation.

The boys were both seated next to each other at the table in the kitchen. Rantaro had been teaching Kokichi that day’s lesson for nearly an hour, yet the boy still didn’t really understand anything. Of course, he wouldn’t understand anything since he didn’t even know the basic stuff.

Still, he couldn’t just tell him that he doesn’t understand anything. Rantaro would just figure out that he totally sucked even at elementary math. How embarrassing.

Amami looked at him and noticed that something wasn’t alright. He believed his explanation contained all the new information they had learned, but then why did Kokichi seem so confused? 

“Ouma-kun, do you think you can solve this?” Amami spoke as he wrote a very simple equation on a sheet of paper and handed it to Kokichi.

The purple-haired boy panicked. Rantaro was going to figure everything out. There wasn’t anything to do anymore. Not even lying would help him in a situation like this. He had to face him problems.

Kokichi stared at the equation, knowing he had no idea about solving it.

“I can’t do it” he said quietly, still looking down at the paper.

He hated admitting defeat, but there was just no other way.

Still, Ouma wasn’t expecting this reaction.

Amami placed his arm around Kokichi’s neck, making him feel nice and warm. He was never that close to someone else before, but it made him feel good. Accepted. Wanted. Maybe even loved.

When he turned his head to look at Rantaro, Kokichi saw him smiling. A kind, gentle smile. But this wasn’t like his usual smiles, that he would put on just to make others feel relaxed around him.

This was an actual, genuine smile. 

“There’s no shame in admitting you don’t understand something.” He said calmly, bringing Ouma closer to him. “It’s okay to ask for help when you need it.”

How could Rantaro be so nice to everyone, especially to someone like him? He felt like he didn’t deserve his kindness. 

But his words felt so right. Why was admitting the truth so hard? Perhaps because lies made him feel more like himself, safer, better. The truth was always so hard and cold, so surrounding himself with lies shielded him for such a long time from everyone else.

Then how could Rantaro see right past through his lies?

Amami of course had no idea that his action would be so impactful to Ouma. He just felt like the boy was alone most of the time, and he really needed someone to understand him and empathize with him.

But seeing Kokichi look so vulnerable made him understand that the boy’s situation was more complicated than he had expected.

***

The two of them didn’t stay like that for long.

“Amami-chan, I’m bored! Let’s do something else!” Ouma exclaimed as he got back to his usual personality. 

Rantaro looked at him, then at the math book, and decided that it was probably enough for today, even though his whole attempt to explain him everything was mostly useless. Still, he felt like he made Kokichi learn something else that day.

Ouma jumped from the chair, went to the living room and crashed on the couch with a loud sigh.

Amami followed him and sat down next to the boy.

“Wanna play cards? Kokichi asked him excitedly. “I haven’t played this with anyone else in a while”.

Rantaro looked at him and chuckled.

“Sure” he responded, placing himself so that he could face Ouma properly.

Ouma grabbed the cards and started shuffling them.

“Nishishi! But I’m warning you, I’m the best player around” he spoke confidently, trying to intimidate Amami.

Rantaro wasn’t going to let his guard down either.

“Hmm…We’ll see about that” he responded in the same way.

Ouma just laughed mockingly, drawing his card from the deck.

The two of them locked eyes and stared intensely at each other.

Kokichi held one card in his right hand as he raised it.

“It’s time to du-du-du-du-du-du-du-duel!”


	3. Is it okay to be happy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Back with a new chapter! Honestly, I think I'm pretty satisfied with how this chapter turned out. I'm usually kind of anxious about posting new stuff, so I really hope you like it! ^_^

“Man, I can’t believe I’ve lost” Rantaro spoke, laughing awkwardly while scratching his head.

An hour passed since the beginning of their game and the person who finally won was unsurprisingly Kokichi.

“They don’t call me ‘The Master of the Cards’ for nothing, Amami-chan!” Ouma laughed mischievously as he put the cards back on the table.

In response, Rantaro just chuckled gleefully. 

Having no other thing to do, Kokichi decided to turn on the TV. 

News, politics, news, some TV drama, news, a dumb reality show, music.

Out of all these, music seemed like the best choice. Some new Rock band was making its debut, and while Ouma wasn’t really the biggest music fan, he had to admit they were really good.

Looking at Rantaro to see his reaction, he noticed that he was slowly moving his head back and forth, which meant he was enjoying it, too. Maybe even a bit more than him. After all, he seemed like the type who would love this kind of stuff.

“You’re so weird, Amami-chan” Ouma spoke, sighing dramatically.

Rantaro seemed to ignore him. He looked really thoughtful for a second, staring at the ground, then turned his head to Kokichi, looking more serious than usual.

“Ouma-kun, I’ve been meaning to ask, how come you’re staying here alone?” he asked, curiosity making its way into his voice. He tried his best not to sound rude or make Kokichi feel awkward, but noticing the look on his face made Rantaro realize that he failed.

The purple-haired boy looked so sad. Not just sad, more like traumatized. He positioned himself in a fetal position as he began sobbing.

“My parents died a few years ago and I’ve been alone since then.” He said quietly, looking away from the other boy.

Rantaro was quite shocked to hear that, but that was one of his theories since he saw the interior of the place for the first time.

“I’m really sorr –“ he began apologizing before being interrupted.

“That was a lie” Kokichi said, his mouth curving into a smile as he wiped his tears.

Amami knew that must’ve been the truth, but Ouma was just trying to hide it behind his lies. Just like always. Still, he felt sad for the boy, but seeing that Kokichi wanted to deny the truth, Rantaro decided to play along with it.

“Hmm… I see”, he replied casually."

Kokichi knew that Rantaro wasn’t going to be fooled by something like that, but part of him wanted to tell him the truth about it. He felt really lonely and he couldn’t talk to anyone about anything, so being with the green-haired boy made him want to express himself in a sincere manner. Still, talking about _that_ always made him feel quite uncomfortable.

The thing that Ouma really liked about Amami was the fact that he didn’t want to push. Even though he saw right through Kokichi’s lie, he didn’t want to continue talking about the subject, sensing that it was something that the other didn’t want to talk about.

“Now that you asked your question, I have the right to ask my question, Amami-chan” he said playfully, grinning at the other boy.

“Well, what is it?” Rantaro asked in a curious tone, having no idea about what Kokichi’s question might be.

Before truly asking the question, Ouma got closer to Amami, trying to build up some tension. The green-haired boy didn’t flinch, not even when Kokichi leaned and whispered into his ear.

“Well, Amami-chan, what I really want to ask is…” he paused, trying to tease Rantaro as much as he could, “how are you so good at math?”

The question fell so flat that it made Rantaro burst into laughter. 

Kokichi was giggling too, but he was panicking on the inside. His plan to creep Amami out totally failed and he had no idea how. 

Despite really taking a liking to Rantaro, becoming close to him still didn’t feel quite right. Was he really allowed to be friends with someone? Could he finally be accepted by someone? 

After he stopped laughing, Amami decided to actually respond to the other’s question.

“Well, to be honest, I’m not that good. I mean, I’m pretty average. But you could say that I know all the important stuff.” he said casually, scratching the back of his head.

“And as for how I know those, I guess it’s because of my sisters. I’ve always learned a lot in order to be able to help them as much as I can if they had any trouble with it. It’s not really a big deal.”

Kokichi’s eyes twinkled as he heard the last part.

“That’s sooo nice! Amami-chan is such a responsible brother! I didn’t expect any less, of course”, he shouted cheerfully, overreacting a bit.

Still, Rantaro felt really glad to hear like that, especially coming from Kokichi’s mouth, since no one actually admired him for doing something for his sisters. He didn’t expect anything for it. After all, it was his job to be taking care of them and to make sure that they were safe and happy. 

But now that he was thinking about it, no one really cared about his well-being or about all the effort he always put just to make others feel good, so hearing it from someone else made him feel appreciated.

“Thanks, Ouma-kun” he spoke quietly, looking down while smiling and blushing slightly.

This was the first time something like this happened to the “oh-so-composed Amami Rantaro”. And even he felt a bit embarrassed by it.

Thankfully, Kokichi didn’t notice it. Instead he looked at the clock and then through the window.

“It’s getting dark” he remarked in a serious voice, something quite uncharacteristic for him.

Amami looked at the clock, too, and noticed that it was almost 7.

“Yeah, guess I should be leaving.” he spoke as he got up from the couch. 

He noticed that Ouma looked surprisingly sad as he led him to the front door.

Before telling each other good bye, Rantaro suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, right, I almost forgot to ask. What’s the best day for you, Wednesday or Friday?” he asked, smiling gently.

After hearing the question, Kokichi’s eyes sparkled as the corners of his mouth turned up.

“Amami-chan! Are you serious?” he asked, understanding what the other boy was talking about, but not being able to fully believe it.

Rantaro closed his eyes and nodded silently.

“I’ve been helping my sisters with math for a long time, so I’m sure tutoring one more person won’t be a problem.”

Ouma’s eyes lit up at hearing something like this. Was someone actually going to help him? And for nothing in return? But then, what was the point?

“Plus, I kinda enjoy spending time with you” , Rantaro added, smirking at the other.

Kokichi was surprised to hear that, although he completely shared the feeling.

“Amami-chan is being just too cute! Well then, I will gladly accept your offer!” he spoke loudly in an excited voice. “Also, Friday seems like a perfect choice!”

Rantaro nodded understandingly with a satisfied look on his face.

“Great!” he said as he opened the door to leave. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”

“Yep, yep!” he responded, waving at the other boy. “Bye, Amami-chan!”

“Bye!” Rantaro exclaimed, waving back at Kokichi.

When “his new tutor” was finally gone, Ouma started thinking about the whole situation he was in and sighed.

“This is gonna be pretty interesting…”


End file.
